He left his engineering job and travels full time without touching inventory due to Amazon REPLENS

Summary

Jim welcomes listeners to a podcast interview where proven Amazon coaches Brian and Robin interview Matt Hassler, a newer coach who found success on Amazon. Matt started selling online in 2022 after his mom suggested it to support their real estate business. He quickly transitioned to a travel lifestyle, living in an RV with his wife. Matt credits the proven Amazon course and coaching for accelerating his growth, especially with sourcing and backend details. He now specializes in tools, offering wholesale and branded bundles. Matt enjoys coaching to pay forward the support he received, emphasizing flexibility to meet clients' unique goals on their Amazon journey.

Takeaways

• 😊 Matt started selling on Amazon in 2022 and was able to quit his engineering job to travel full time by January 2024
• 👍 Coaching helped accelerate Matt's business growth by improving his sourcing techniques and optimizing backend systems
• 🚌 Matt and his wife now travel full time in their fifth wheel camper while running their Amazon business remotely
• 💡 Matt focuses on tools and home improvement products which are easy for him to source and ship using prep centers
• 📈 Matt still does some online arbitrage but is transitioning more into wholesale and planning to launch private label products
• ✅ Having an assistant handle administrative tasks freed up 15 hours a week of Matt's time to focus on business growth
• 💰 In just over a year, Matt has grown from his first sale to over $30k monthly sales now
• 🤝 The networking and connections available through the coaching program are as valuable as the coaching itself
• 👩‍💻 Matt enjoys helping other sellers succeed by using his engineering background to systematize processes
• 🔐 Properly verifying your identity information with Amazon now can prevent issues if you get selected for ID verification later

Q & A

What business model was Matt using when he first got started selling on Amazon?

Matt was using the RA (retail arbitrage) and OA (online arbitrage) models when he first started selling on Amazon. This involved finding discounted items online or in retail stores and reselling them for a profit on Amazon.

How long did it take Matt to transition to selling on Amazon full time?

It took Matt around 18 months to transition to selling on Amazon full time. He made his first sale in September 2022 and went full time in January 2024.

What lifestyle is Matt and his wife currently living?

Matt and his wife currently travel full-time in a fifth wheel camper. They go south in the winter to places like Florida and travel north in the summer.

What business model is Matt transitioning his business to focus on?

Matt is transitioning his business to focus more on wholesale and private label. He finds wholesale allows him to scale his business faster by being able to invest more capital.

How does Matt run his Amazon business while traveling full-time?

While traveling, Matt relies on virtual assistants to help manage parts of his business. This allows him to focus his time on higher priority tasks.

What value did Matt find in the coaching program?

Matt found the coaching program helped accelerate his growth tremendously. He estimates his sales increased 40-50% within the first couple months of getting coaching.

Why did Matt decide to become an Amazon coach?

Matt enjoyed the networking opportunities coaching provided. He also finds fulfillment in helping others succeed in building their own Amazon businesses.

What systems is Matt focused on building out right now?

Matt is focused on building out systems in his business to free up more of his time. The goal is to build a sustainable business that provides him and his wife more freedom.

What technique does Matt use when working with clients who don't have an engineering background?

Matt takes a very systematic approach to break things down step-by-step for clients without an engineering background. This helps ensure no details are missed along the way.

Where can people reach out if they want to work directly with Matt?

If people are interested in working with Matt, they can call the coaching office and request to work with him. The coaching team will get you set up to work together.

Outlines

00:00

😊 Introducing guest speaker Matt Hassler

Jim introduces guest speaker Matt Hassler, a coach on Jim's team. Matt was formerly an engineer but now travels full time in an RV with his wife running his Amazon business, which started with the proven Amazon course repins model. Jim mentions the prep center network resource for people interested in using prep centers to receive inventory.

05:00

😃 Invitation to attend The Proven Conference 2024

Jim invites listeners to attend The Proven Conference 2024 happening May 23-25. He mentions there is a scholarship program available for those who can't afford the ticket cost. The conference provides an abundant mindset community.

10:00

😊 Brian and Robin interview Matt Hassler

Brian and Robin welcome Matt Hassler to interview him. Matt got into Amazon selling to support his real estate business. He went full time in January 2024 and is now pivoting to wholesale and private label. His business growth accelerated after joining coaching.

15:00

🔨 Matt's engineering background helped with analytics

Matt shares how his engineering background helped him with the data analytics of selling on Amazon. Joining the coaching program accelerated his growth by optimizing his time and providing helpful techniques.

20:00

🛒 Still doing some online arbitrage at 60% of sales

Matt is trying to transition his business to more wholesale but still does mostly online arbitrage, which takes little time to maintain. He has two virtual assistants, one for admin work, which saves him 15 hours per week.

25:02

📈 Targeting more wholesale and private label next 12 months

In the next 12 months Matt is targeting fully transitioning out of online arbitrage and focusing efforts on expanding wholesale and launching private label products to increase margins and diversify.

30:03

👨‍💻 Matt enjoys providing coaching tips

Matt enjoys being a coach to provide helpful tips to others from his recent experience, as well as the networking opportunity it provides. He looks forward to working with new coaching clients interested in tools and home improvement.

Keywords

💡Amazon

Amazon is an ecommerce platform and marketplace where third-party sellers can sell products. The video discusses strategies for successfully selling products on Amazon through various means like online arbitrage, wholesale, and private label. Many of the coaching clients and success stories mentioned in the video achieved their business growth by leveraging Amazon's platform and reach.

💡coaching

The coaching program refers to the training, mentoring, and support services offered to new Amazon sellers by Silent Jim and his team of coaches. Coaching clients receive one-on-one guidance to accelerate their progress, avoid common pitfalls, and scale their Amazon businesses faster. Many successful students like Matt become coaches themselves to pay it forward.

💡prep centers

Prep centers are third-party fulfillment and warehousing services that receive seller inventory, inspect it, apply labeling/packaging, and ship it to Amazon for storage and order fulfillment on the seller's behalf. For traveling sellers or those without space to store inventory, using prep centers allows a hands-off business model.

💡online arbitrage (OA)

Online arbitrage refers to the practice of finding profitable online deals, ordering discounted products, and reselling them for higher profits on Amazon. Matt and other sellers use OA as one of their sourcing strategies but look to move more towards wholesale for greater scale and margins.

💡Proven Amazon course

This is Silent Jim's training program that coaches and successful students have used to start their businesses. It teaches product research, launch, and growth strategies tailored specifically for the Amazon platform. The video touts many examples of the proven course leading to dramatic success.

💡wholesale

Wholesale refers to purchasing inventory directly from manufacturers, distributors, or suppliers at deeply discounted rates and reselling at higher retail prices for profit. Sourcing good wholesale suppliers can enable lower costs and higher margins. Matt is transitioning more towards wholesale for scalability.

💡private label

Private label products are those designed or branded by the seller rather than resold from another brand. Private labeling allows differentiation, higher margins, and stronger branding for one's Amazon business. Matt is getting into private label with guidance from expert Nathan Bailey.

💡niche

One's niche refers to the specific market vertical or product categories one focuses on for their Amazon business. Matt's niche is tools and home improvement. Sticking to a niche allows greater specialization and easier identification of expansion opportunities.

💡branded bundles

Branded bundles refer to private label products that are sold in pre-packed combinations or kits. Bundles allow differentiation, higher perceived value, andhigher margins. For example, a toolkit with multiple matching tools.

💡replenish

Replenish refers to reordering top selling products from suppliers to re-stock one's Amazon inventory as units sell through. Efficiently replenishing profitable products is crucial for maintaining sales volumes.

Highlights

Matt and his wife travel full-time in their fifth wheeler while running their Amazon business

Matt started with retail arbitrage and online arbitrage, and has now transitioned primarily to wholesale and building his own brands

Coaching helped accelerate Matt's business growth significantly

Having an assistant take over administrative tasks freed up 15 hours per week for Matt

Matt enjoys the freedom and flexibility to travel full-time and set his own schedule

Matt focuses on tools and home improvement niche since he has experience in that area

Matt aims to transition more into wholesale and branded bundles for higher margins and more security

It's valuable to have a coach who recently succeeded themselves using current information

New success stories show this business model still works despite claims of saturation

The coaching program is flexible to meet each student's unique goals and challenges

Matt enjoys helping others succeed and experience the same freedom he has

Amazon is now verifying identities of established sellers due to changing regulations

Identity verification gets difficult if you've provided Amazon false personal information

Update incorrect account info now before needing to go through identity verification

Special proven pricing will be offered for Jeff's services at the upcoming conference

Transcripts

welcome to silent Sales Machine radio

business building Warrior I'm so glad

you're going to join us today for a

fantastic conversation with three people

who I have a great deal of respect for

I'm going to turn the microphone over to

them in just a minute you're going to

meet one of the newer coaches on our

team and he's going to be interviewed by

a couple faces you're probably names

you're probably familiar with at this

point if you've listened to our show for

more than a few weeks Brian and Robin

Joy wson are going to interview him for

this episode today you're going to meet

Mr Matt Hassler he's like I said a coach

on our team now he was a coaching

student before that he was a proven

Amazon course student and as you've come

to expect from the hundreds of episodes

before this one he's a great success

story of The Proven Amazon course

systems that we teach here he was

formerly an engineer as you'll hear but

he now travels full-time with his wife

they've got a fifth wheeler they go

where the sun is shining they go south

of in the winter they're able to run

their business with a very flexible

lifestyle making more money than they

were before on the road what a cool

lifestyle that is that they've been able

to carve out he shares all the details

of that today so I won't dive into it a

whole lot but I will tell you this they

started off with the repins model and

they still have most of their business

there and what that means is they're

helping fill the underserved shelf space

at Amazon very systematically using the

strategies that we teach here filling

the underserved Shelf space at Amazon

they don't touch their product because

remember they're on the road they're on

the go constantly they never see or

touch their product it's sent to prep

centers and they break down how that

works today as well as you hear that

part of the story there's a free

resource for you if you want to go

investigate what prep centers are out

there go to prep Center network.com and

these are the places that will receive

your inventory on your behalf if you

shop online and you want to sell it on

Amazon well they'll receive it inspect

it lab it slap some stickers on it send

it into Amazon on your behalf of course

they charge you a couple dollars to do

it but it's a beautiful business model

that's helping a lot of people

especially International students or

those who don't want to have their

inventory in their own house so this can

be a hands-free model as you've heard

again from dozens of interviews over the

past few years where we've talked to

successful proven Amazon course students

now you need to know this if you really

like what you hear today and you want to

take the next steps which I think

there's going to be a lot of people who

have that feeling after they listen to

this show you need to go to silent

jim.com

Booka call all one word book a call and

get on our schedule let's have a

conversation let's find out how your

business is doing where you're at maybe

you're completely brand new that's great

we want to talk to you maybe you've been

doing this a while and you just need

some expert help to get your business

rolling better faster more efficiently

you're ready to scale those sorts of

things we've got 60 coaches on our team

and you're about to meet three of them

in just a moment when I turn the

microphone over to them so get on our

calendar let's have a conversation maybe

all you need is a few free resources

maybe all you need is a little shove in

the right direction we're going to give

you that or maybe you're ready to move

forward quickly you've got the margin in

your life you've got the time and the

financial margin the mental and

emotional space in your life right now

the relational margin you've got a

supportive spouse who says yeah okay

now's a good time for us to do this

right if you've got that margin then

maybe coaching makes a lot of for you

and we have like I said 60 great coaches

and here's something that all of our

coaches have in common if you haven't

heard me say this in a while they all

started off as clueless newbies they all

used The Proven Amazon course there's a

link to that by the way at silent

jim.com they used that course to get

started they built a beautiful business

they demonstrated that they had a

leadership and teachers heart they have

a lot of empathy they love seeing others

succeed so when you get that comb

combination it's such a potent

combination we seek those people out we

recruit them onto our team we turn them

into coaches and then they help spread

what so many of us have now realized

which is the internet is the greatest

tool for multiple streams of income and

a flexible lifestyle that's ever been

seen right now is the greatest time in

human history to be alive if you want to

launch and grow multiple streams of

income and we use the internet to do

that these are people who understand

this so we've got three coaching teams

you're about to meet one of the coaching

team leaders Brian and Robin Joy Olsen

as well as one of the coaches that works

under them Matt Hassler enjoy this

conversation they give a lot of specific

details you might want to take notes I

think this is a high impact episode

that's going to help a lot of people

including you if you're positioned well

to take the next steps and learning what

we teach around here hey we really hope

to see you at the proven conference if

you haven't heard us talk about it yet

go to this website it's three words th

proven conference.com May 23rd through

25th of 2024 the people you're about to

meet are going to be there a bunch of

our coaches hundreds of listeners to

this show hundreds of people are already

registered if you can't quite justify

the expense we've got a scholarship

program you need to check out we want

you there especially if you're new to

our community we really want you to come

experience this event no admission

charge whatsoever we just want to show

off what we've built we're able to do

this because of the generosity of

numerous sponsors who've helped fli the

bill for the event so you can come and

just enjoy the event no pressure just

come see the reality of what's happening

around here be immersed in this

abundance mindset you always serious

talking about where sure we Face

struggles there's a lot of challenges

but we know that there's always a

solution there's always a way to Pivot

there's always a way to continue moving

forward successfully if you got the

right mindset the right people and the

right programs surrounding you you're

going to do great so that's what we do

here we'd love to have you join us live

if at all possible so get over to that

website The Proven conference.com click

on the button for the scholarship if the

money is a challenge for you right now

to be there with us and we'd love to

help you out all right let's jump into

the episode Brian and Robin Joy take it

away all right we're uh joined today

special guest Matt Hassler I'm sorry I'm

calling you Matt your screen says

Matthew do you have a preference most

call me Matt at this point all right so

uh that's what we call our son our son's

named Matt only Matthew if he's in

trouble so yes I'm not used to saying

Ma so anyway thanks for joining us on

the call today um we want to just uh

highlight kind of your business and talk

about you joining the coaching team and

what that's been like for you and why

don't you just give us a little bit of

background about how you got started in

the Amazon space and maybe take us up to

where you are today sure so um I guess I

started looking into the Amazon space uh

summer of 22 my mom had introduced me as

a way of trying to make additional money

to support our real estate business

business quickly realized it was a

pretty legitimate approach to making

additional money got my LLC started in

July first sale on Amazon in September

of 22 um and then since then you know

just did a lot of RA and OA initially

finally made enough to transition to

fulltime here just last month January of

2024 and um our businesses thank you

it's it's been that's honestly helped

our business grow a lot um and now we're

switching to um primarily wholesale

we're pivoting and then also towards

brand

great that's exciting stuff so what was

compelling about the Amazon business to

you when you were first looking at it

and the second half of this question is

you mentioned real estate are you still

doing that or did you elect to go in the

Amazon Direction versus Real Estate sure

the first question was what made it seem

like legitimate and worth pursuing so a

lot of it seemed very technical you know

it's reading graphs making sure you

understand it um it for me it was easy

to determine if the buying decision was

good or bad my background is engineering

so all the analytics um made a lot of

sense to me and then seeing so many

success stories made me feel that you

know anyone can do it with enough hard

work and determination so it seemed

quite viable at this point we still have

some real estate but we travel full-time

now so it's more difficult for us to um

actively invest in our hometown so you

travel fulltime is that what you said

that's exciting yeah we rocking the

camper life so we're in Florida because

it's cold out yeah uhuh so go where it's

warm I was say you follow the sun yeah

absolutely we'll go north in the summer

and St in Florida in the winter and how

big is your family Matt uh it's just me

and my wife Hing have children in a

couple year but that helped for a while

trying to do this plus the corporate

life yeah and so for sale in you said

September of 22 and then you went

full-time in your Amazon business in

January of 24 so not even 18 months

really and you and you scaled your

business up tell us a little bit about

what that Journey was like sure so in

the beginning was um very much ra and OA

you know kind of going within my Niche

which was like tools and Home

Improvement for me diving into like a

niche really helped me familiarize

myself and identify um I guess items I

was passionate about but also realize

which items seem to be more profitable

did some liquidations and by

liquidations that just me like outlets

and stores closing but you know

legitimate purchases with invoices Etc

and then scaled into further awaya we I

joined coaching back in November of 2022

and that really helped accelerate my

growth and um you know started with a

prep Center in December of 22 because we

were up to about 30,000 sales in a month

at that point and then started doing

Wholesale in July of 23 and um I guess

up until now it's just been trying to go

a little bit more to wholesale because

your time becomes so valuable as you

scale um trying to put in all the

systems in place which is why I also

have two vas to help in that side of it

okay so you got two Bas and they're

helping you with the wholesale side one

is is now dedicated towards brand

bundles and doing the listing creation

she was full-time OA the other one's

been helping me with wholesale and she's

been transitioning to the admin role to

help forget my time as we work with more

suppliers that's great I think the admin

role is one of those you know outsourced

roles that is often overlooked we tend

to focus on sourcing or well it's

usually sourcing everyone wants to

Source the sourcing but how the

transition of those tasks those

administrative tasks gone and and what

kind of time did you get back from that

sure so um I also started with the

source inside of it um you know it's a

really good way to fill out the employee

after working with her for four or five

months I switched into the admin role at

once I felt like I could trust her

because she at this point she has access

to most of our acents she can at least

see them but when I actually did I did a

calculation on it last week I saved

about 15 hours a week right now of my

time um and she's only doing admin

parttime so we're pretty much one to1

ratio and she's doing a better job at

many of the T than I am or was so um

definitely valuable we usually find that

to be the case as well because they only

have this much of the business to worry

about so they can focus on it and I

don't mean like it's a small it's just

it's a very important part of the

business too but that's the only part

they're focused on whereas the business

owner you're focused well it's hard to

be focused because you're doing

everything precisely easily distracted

and overthinking things that you need

somebody to just accomplish right and

miss and missing the important task that

we don't necessarily want to do

reviewing my prep Center sheet sometimes

take two or three weeks because it was

my least favorite

task yeah that's something that you

mentioned before um we hit the record

button here but not in addition to two

subcontractors you also have two

outsourc services that are your prep

centers correct yep we have one in a

taxfree state which is proven prep you

know it really helps because we do a lot

of a high dollar items so saving that

sales tax and then we have one located

in the midwest which is for our

wholesalers because we're not concerned

about the the sales tax but they seem to

have really fast check-in times and it's

kind of centralized interesting that is

interesting we don't have a prepper

Shopper shipper in the midwest anymore

but when we did we found the same thing

typically like there's everything sort

of comes together there very closely and

so whenever we were shipping things out

from Ohio they were typically received

in like two or at least they arrived

within two days and then you know the

receive the standard receiving process

but for us that's better because when we

were shipping from Colorado that could

take two three days four days to get to

California for the longest time that was

our Primary Prep

Center y I'm noticing the same thing

even through Q4 we were actually having

check-in times in four to five days wow

that's great that's a good a good tip

helps you turn your money a little

faster huh yes it does yeah so let's

maybe move on to the coaching space now

you you were a coaching client before

you um found success in the business you

mentioned that it accelerated your

business what was that were there any

what were the key things that kind of

stood out to you in that sure so um for

me the coaching was very valuable you

know with having a proactive and

reactive coach in the beginning I was

spending significant quantity of times

trying to do OA sourcing um at night so

I kind of conveyed that to my proactive

coach and he showed me the bot scraping

technology that was initially came out

and for me that was a lot of fun I had

some coding background and I guess that

helped provide me with different

Alternatives that I wasn't looking at

and you know essentially all of our

calls kind of just focused around the

sourcing which even to this day we're

always Capital constrain now we're no

longer looking for products that

combined with your all's uh keepa

courses um have pretty much taken care

of me for the past year and then the

reactive coaches so I had only been

selling for about two or three months at

that time and I remember calling my PR

my reactive coach two or three times a

week and just asking a bunch of

questions we were filling the 30 minutes

but it was nice to have somebody that I

could count on to provide the answers

and you know I can spend two to three

hours researching a single answer but he

was showing me even faster methods I was

finding myself so when you're I was

already working 50 to 60 hours a week

trying to do 30 hours on Amazon all of

those hours saved from the coaching

sessions really added up quickly so it

feels like you get you get on the fast

track when you're working with coaches

yeah absolutely I think I think I've

posted a couple times in the Facebook

group that you know the people that are

going to be successful will be

successful regardless of my opinion but

the ones that go down the coaching route

that would have also been successful

will be you know tremendously

accelerated and when you think about the

costs associated with that you know my

sales probably increase 40 or 50% within

my first month or two of coaching so it

easily paid the course back wow yeah

that's awesome so you said you sold your

first thing in September and then in

December you got into coaching is that

right correct so that does help you

scale up much faster but you already had

some experience you were trying some

things out on your own and then uh just

the sanity check that you were getting

from the coach or the the validation of

what you thought was already working uh

was what helped accelerate your

experience yeah I was spending

significant quantity of hours on the

sourcing side so some of the techniques

that I was taught really helped me save

time on on that end and then some of the

backend um systems my reactive coach was

pretty Technical and detail oriented so

he really helped clarify a lot of those

details that um a lot of the items I

just wasn't even aware of until we had

those sessions so I'd start with one or

two questions but it would just dive

into information that I didn't even know

to ask yeah that's great so you said you

were an engineer previously what uh

space were you in chemical engineering

but it was more of like a packaging and

um corporate role for like equipment

procurement okay all right and you loved

it so much that's why you're not working

there anymore I had a really good team I

enjoyed it but the freedom that comes

from uh you know doing Amazon you know

far outweighs those benefits plus we get

to travel full-time see the world and uh

I get to spend a lot more time with my

wife without traveling for work that's

great that's great now you're traveling

in your fifth wheel is that what you

said yeah it's a fifth wheel yeah so

your fifth wheel but you're conducting

your business on the road and um so kind

of describe what a normal day looks like

for you yeah so essentially my wife

works third shift so I just try to match

her schedule so my schedule's like a

little bit off compared to most people M

but um I wake up I review some of the

items Associated from my vas you know

whatever questions they would have and

then I kind of just go through I use a

um a task manager called like assana so

every day I know what task I'm going to

be doing and having some organization

associated with it but in regards to the

freedom I also just have the option to

match my wife's days so she's all Friday

so we're just going to go to Universal

for the day oh um and then she works

Saturday so I'll work Saturday so just

that flexibility really nice that is

great so funny story I didn't plan on on

talking here we go off screen yeah but

uh at The Proven conference last year

the Olsen coaching team put together

this little gathering and in walks Matt

and and you're like yeah I'm on your

team and we're like nah I don't think

you are but join us right join us anyway

and we all sat around and had coffee and

then Robin and I were talking after

we're like Matt Hassler is on our team

we didn't even know this right and is

just one of those things where you came

in as as a coach which was awesome and

there was just a Matt hadn't been able

the other Matt Matt Thompson hadn't

talked to us yet about you know you

joining our team and so we were stoked

to after we realized that that that you

actually were there and you're like hey

I'm on your team and um we had a nice

little gathering of Olsson team coaches

and

clients yes it was it was great but yeah

I remember that I was I was kind of

wasn't sure but because it was so busy

we had just been on vacation for a week

and then the proven conference and we

were so busy I had just missed the mess

I mean I'd gotten the message but I had

missed it and I didn't realize that so

my apologies for that but we are sure

glad that that was real that you are on

our team now yeah so so tell us uh tell

me or tell us both I guess what is it

that like appealed about the coaching

program to you to be a so of course the

the value I got from coaching was well

worth it but also just um the networking

associated with it so for one you get to

meet a lot of like higher end Sellers

and the networking that I've gained from

that has carried me much further than

even the coaching did and then it's also

a lot of fun so I enjoy like reading

through the Facebook messages and

responding to people and providing tips

because I know sometimes I've spent an

hour and then I just happen to finally

see a post that you know answers my

question in 30 seconds so to know that I

can spend the dedicated time to someone

that was all set my shoes just a year or

two ago and help accelerate them you

know when they hit like a new record it

almost feels like I hit a new record

because you know I was able to

contribute and if if I can help someone

else succeed and get this freedom I want

to make sure I can do that I think

that's a good that's a good point Matt

when you said someone who is in you were

in their shoes a couple years ago it is

nice some people you know oh I want this

Old season coach that's been doing this

forever and ever but what's really nice

about getting somebody who's just been

doing this for three or four years or

even two or three years is that they're

they have come up recently they have

proven this once again that it's current

and relative and they know what the

current issues are they're right in the

middle of it right now so that can be

really valuable for somebody who is

trying to follow in your footsteps and

uh somebody that you can lead with that

current knowledge and the the current

issues that you've just overcome with

the current uh state state of Amazon

I'll say that absolutely you always hear

how saturated it is now but we continue

to see like new success stories all the

time all the time yeah I just sent

another one to Jim today that told me

that he is doing 45,000 this month and

he just started in May last year so I'm

so proud of him I'm so excited when I

get those

stories yeah I was just digging through

the Facebook group to a little bit this

week there's like I didn't capture

everything in the last six months there

have been like 50 some success like here

was my year here was my quarter I just

started two months ago not like unlike

you started three months ago and I'm I'm

doing 40 or 50 Grand a month right these

are awesome stories that just go to show

that this is available for everyone to

get in there and

exploit people find a way yeah yeah I

guess there wasn't really a question

there huh no not so much but I agree

with everything you said we're very

experienced interviewers obviously yeah

well one of the things you said early on

was that with an engineering background

you felt like you took to this pretty

quickly but you know you work with

coaching client cents who AR don't have

an engineering background how do you

help relate what they need to know in

order to find success sure so um

essentially everyone that I've worked

with thus far they kind of all have the

same generic questions it's kind of just

like where do I start or how do I go

ahead and improve the system so we try

to take like my background which is be

like a more systematic approach and try

to break down where um some key details

that they might be missing we can go

through in that process so like even my

vas I require them to break down the

step-by-step process and then have other

V8 review it um just to make sure no

details are missed so you know just kind

of going through and then whenever you

find success with it with a system we go

ahead and start recording that so that

way they can try to replicate it um and

I'm sure as you guys know once you find

like one or two products you know you'll

find significantly more around that area

and then just some slight adjustments so

I try to impose some of my analytics on

them and if that's where they're missing

or if they're already really strong and

it we try to figure out what other

shortcomings they may have yeah yeah

okay great now um you mentioned also

that uh you've still got some OA do you

have still some OA going yep we're about

60% OA U we're trying to transition it

into the wholesale business but when you

have 60% of your business as replans

that I only need to spend five to six

hours a month replenishing it's hard to

give that side of the business up it is

yeah yeah yeah so OA is online Arbitrage

which means you order everything online

and have it sent to your prep Center as

as opposed to going into the store and

purchasing it right yeah want to clear

that up in case anybody was wondering

why we keep saying OA and they didn't

know what that meant the acronyms yes

okay and so then you've added wholesale

and you also mentioned branded bundles

now where do you see your business going

over the next 12 months or so we're

essentially trying to Target not not

purchasing or not finding any more OA I

should say um trying to push really hard

into the wholesale just because um you

know as you start growing larger you

need faster ways be able to spend the

capital to make sure you're continuing

to grow and then trying to go down the

Branded bundle route for the purpose of

increasing our margins MH um as well as

provide us with some security you know

as it does become more saturated the

security associated with branded bundles

will allow us to be the only seller in

theory for a lot of the products um as

well as it diversifies and we can start

obtaining sales outside of Amazon alone

yeah that's true are you just selling on

the Amazon platform or are you anywhere

else I also sell on like Walmart and

eBay not to the same extent but uh

Walmart is one of one of our objectives

for Q quarter 2 to try to really

diversify we are within like the tools

and Home Improvement nich which doesn't

Fair as well in Walmart but it would

still be nice to have another 20 or 30%

uptick in sales okay nice now did you

work are you kind of a tools guy and

that's how come you started in that

space or was that just something that

seemed like a natural fit I used to sell

tools and um at a store and then I also

um was maintenance and Engineering for

seven years as an occupation so for me

it was familiar and I'd rather when I

was prepping stuff myself I'd rather

prep a $100 item than $11

items okay that makes sense like for me

I think when Robin got in I my my that's

your honey pot I like to call it your

honey pot right you always know you can

go back to that space and probably find

some more good things to sell there for

us that happened in the grocery space we

just always our honey pot is food well

that not honey though

uh oh I think we've sold honey before Oh

we have sold honey yeah yeah um

challenges with with food is expiration

dates which you don't have to deal with

with the tools so that's awfully

appealing too yes yeah it's very nice

I've learned a lot about the

difficulties associated with grocery

items in the past so much more difficult

to do with OA but I'm sure people find

great success with it as well yeah it

just depends on on who you are and what

works for you and that's one of the

things that I love about the coaching

program is that our mission is not to

put put put our clients in a box and say

this is how you step through this

program our mission is to help the

client meet their goals and they have

their unique challenges and their unique

advantages as well and we helped them

Point those out and it takes them in a

different different path sometimes than

where we went but because we have

experience that we've taken people

before through there we can we can still

helping out help them out a lot but I

really like the fact that it's not

really a you know in thebox sort of

program it's for the client yeah that

flexibility is really really nice

because almost everyone that I've worked

with thus far um you know while they

have some of the same generic requests

kind of like improving their sourcing a

lot of them also have very specific

goals that they want or slight

variations um where if it was you know

rigid they wouldn't be able to really

grow the way they wanted to yeah so also

wanted to ask you about as long as we

were talking about the Honeypot what we

find a lot of times is that people get

you know used to sourcing a specific

category or type of product and and we

really do want diversity within our book

of business so how is it that you

approach getting into a new category or

a new type of product when you're when

you're sourcing I'm G to be probably not

the best one to answer I'm about 95%

within the tools and Home Improvement we

at this point so we actually just got

our first like brand direct account

today um so for us the diversification

is in achieving the new distrib

distributor account brand direct

accounts or niches it's also when you

think about the general category might

have 1 and a. half million products

within it so you know we also abide by

like paradus principle where we know 80%

of our sales are going to come from like

20% of our suppliers so we Tred to

actually um build up the relations with

those Distributors to try to get better

margins and we've been successful in

pushing other people off of it by

knowing what their buy cost most likely

was ah so that was a roundabout way of

saying that we don't diversify probably

as well as others as much yeah yeah well

yeah you will though as you know time

goes by I'm sure you you will Mor

because you'll exhaust what you have and

need to go further right well I'm I'm

curious how does do you think this is

going to play out or have you have you

launched any branded bundles yet I

haven't really seen a whole lot of

branded bundles in the tools and Home

Improvement space so I'm curious about

you know how are you putting those

things together I don't want to know

your products but you have you had

challenges there so I meet with Nathan

on Monday to kind of like Nathan Bailey

get a get a yes Nathan Bailey you know

the expert of Brandon bundles to kind

one of the experts him in L to um ask

him to overlook it to look over it so a

lot of the brands are on the restricted

list but some of our Distributors that

we partner with allows us to access

items that aren't currently sold on

Amazon but through like utilizing

different softwares we're able to

identify that they indeed would sell

really fast and I actually found like an

inactive listing from two and a half

years ago um for the first our first

product launch and it's sold 250 a month

so I think we should be in pretty good

position that's great yeah that's

awesome that's great yeah well I would

say like what you're talking about is is

unique uh among the coaches that we have

on our team and I don't know we like

we've got people who do specialize in OA

we've got people who are out of the

country coaches in New Zealand and

Australia um we've got a coach in Canada

and most of them are doing what I would

call the normal things so like the

health and beauty

HomeGoods and food like that's primarily

where most people are and so you've got

a unique approach here which I I

appreciate and I want to just uh call

out that you are on the coaching team

you are taking new clients am I correct

yeah absolutely just switched a fulltime

last month so I have a lot more free

time um I only have a few students at

this point okay great so um if anyone's

interested in working with Matt when you

call the coaching office just mention

ask Matt for Matt ask Matt for Matt yeah

we'll get you hooked up yeah you may

talk to anyone at the at the coaching

office but yeah if you want to work with

Matt Hassler just let them know that and

we'll get you hooked up all the coaches

on our team and on the whole um Jim

cochrum coaching team in in general are

just amazing everybody's doing a really

great job and I'm really glad to be part

of that great Community the coaches is

great community in addition to the those

folks who are not coaches it's just a

great community in general we were

talking earlier this week about how

all the advantages that we get by being

a part of this community that's

supportive knowledgeable and um has good

leadership and we are lucky to include

you on that team Matt yeah thank you I

got lucky to be with you all well we we

we tried to dis we tried to say you

weren't part of our team I know I felt

it

anyway yes I am on your

team um well this has been a great

little session for us to chat a little

bit anything else you think we should

know about what your coaching style is

like or your business or um Amazon in

general I mean for me my like preference

and like you know my desires to go down

towards like the wholesale as well as

building the systems um all of us want

to buy back our time so by putting in

systems um trying to be very analytical

and build a business that we can sustain

and take the freedom and you know enjoy

time with our family is what I would be

passionate about improving for someone

else that's great I love that great

anything else Robin no I I'm just I'm

really happy to have you met now I'm

sure that some clients will call and

want to work with you because they

connect with you so I'm excited about

that too sure I look forward to working

with them too all right thanks so much

for your time Matt we'll catch up with

you soon thank you sounds good thank you

hey thanks for joining us today One Last

Thing Before I Let You Go once a week or

so typically on a Wednesday episode we

love to hang out with my good friend

Jeff schik he's our resident expert for

all things Amazon legal and policy he

always has a great tip or strategy for

us something to be aware of as sellers

what do you got for us this week Jeff

well I think the buzzword everyone is

hearing about right now is identity

verifications and uh and what does that

mean in the world of Amazon sellers so

uh this segment's really geared towards

helping sellers uh not not fear the ID

verification which will come at some

point and and know and understand why

it's happening and and how you can

protect yourself against becoming one of

horror stories that people hear about

now let me just ask you a quick question

Jeff before you go there because we're

even talking about I'm hearing from

sellers they've been selling for two or

three years yeah and Amazon's popping in

like hey we need to verify your ID and

then Panic ensues of course right like

everything from new sellers which that's

always been a bit of a challenge and

Amazon does like the little video review

thing now to verify identity so we're

talking about both of these right we are

uh mainly though it's the

the two to threeyear Old seller even

13-year-old sellers have reached out to

me saying they're getting hit with the

verifications and wanting to know what

do we do about it and how do we how do

we handle it so to Jump Right In the

reason why this is happening is that

there's been a couple us laws that were

passed that require Amazon to verify the

identities for high volume Merchants so

they've got to comply with these Federal

Acts in order to be compliant they also

another thing that's been going on is

there's been changes to the payment

facilitator laws and Amazon is what we

would call payment facil meaning they

accept payments on behalf of consumers

that are then remitted to a third party

aka the seller for those goods and so

because they're they have to comply with

these different payment facilitator laws

and these other you know laws like the

informed consumers act they now have to

go through and verify who they're paying

sounds easy it really is for the most

part pretty easy if you get one of those

verification you know letters which if

you know chances are if you haven't

gotten one yet you probably will it's

not a need to panic but it's really just

as long as your ducks are in a row

you'll be totally fine the biggest

issues we're seeing right now is really

comes down to people that are trying to

hide who they are are running into

issues so naturally if you are giving

Amazon false information because you're

trying to hide your identity you're not

going to pass an identity verification

suspension when they try to do it you

know it's it's kind I know it sounds

simple but I've had a couple

conversations with where they were

adamant that they wanted to make sure

Amazon didn't find out who they were and

they went to Great Lengths the problem

is is that if you give them for instance

a po. box and you say that you live in a

PO Box you're not going to pass an ID

verification suspension same thing goes

if you've got you know if you live at

123 Maple Street and your driver's

license says 123 Maple Street but you

give Amazon a address for you know 789

Oak Street that's going to raise a red

flag and the reason is not because you

may own the house on Oak Street but

they're going to look you up and they're

going to type your social security

number into a credit reporting agency

database most likely from Equifax or

xarion and they're going to pull up all

of your known addresses and it's going

to pull up hey he lives at this address

and what you know naturally is going to

happen is they're going to flag it and

say well we can't approve this because

experience says you live at 123 Maple

Street and you gave us all this

information showing you live on Oak

Street so unless you help us bridge the

gap how do we know one that you're not

stealing the identity of somebody on Oak

Street or how do we know that you're not

a terrorist that's just using some

random identity and address you it's all

all things that they have to worry about

so if you you know so sellers that are

having issues right now a lot of them

really come down to having wrong

information in there you know like it

tells you what please like one of the

questions is what is your place of

establishment well on Amazon place of

establishment is where you legally

reside unless un you're a big enough

business that you have a commercial

office space with a c you know a state

or county or city issue business license

and business utility bills and and you

know your your real legit business space

you know zoning permits and all that

sort of stuff then you should be using

your place of establishment address

would be your home address so when you

give them a UPS store that's not going

to fly when they when they Google it and

see that this is a UPS store that you're

claiming to live inside of makes total

sense

yeah so a lot of what we're seeing is

you know it's no reason to panic but if

you have made these simple mistakes just

go in and fix them now don't wait till

you get the verification to start fixing

them but certainly fix them before you

submit the verification like if you

forget if you listen to this episode and

you take no action you forget about it

and in three weeks you get a

verification suspension you say oh man

my place estment is still the UPS store

that's fine fix it then go through your

verification right don't think that

you're going to just go through the

verification and sail through it because

it won't H it won't happen they're going

to call you out on it and it's not going

to be a it's going to go from a 24 to 48

hour process to a you know three four

five six seven week process who knows

how long it depends on how many other

people are failed that have are in line

ahead of you right that makes total

sense it makes total sense why they

would want to do it and yeah part of

selling on Amazon is they need to know

you are who you claim to be helps them

fight fraud and you know fraudulent

transactions so makes total sense to me

yeah it's come up a good handful of

times in the Facebook group so I

appreciate you talking us through that

today Jeff good tips man absolutely yeah

thank you want to remind everyone too uh

Jeff shik is at Jeff shi.com just like

the razor you can put on retainer for a

few dollars a day anytime you have any

IP complaints or legal issues or policy

challenges I've sent your team some some

off-the-wall stuff I mean I've been

doing this a long time and I still run

into stuff pretty much weekly that I'm

like man I need someone who knows their

stuff you're the guys yeah thanks for

being a sponsor at the uh upcoming

conference as well the proven conference

you guys are coming bringing your team

how many of you guys are coming with it

with you this year so it's going to be

two of our five people although next

time you and I speak we might have six

people so uh but it's going to be two of

us that are coming to uh to the

conference and we look forward to seeing

everybody yeah we can't wait to share

we've got some exciting stuff in the

pipeline uh that's that we're going to

be announcing that you'll be first to

hear it at proven so make sure you stop

by we're going to have some special you

know proven proven offer for anybody

that wants to to learn more about what

we're coming up with and what we're

launching and it's going to be a uh a

special proven pricing too so awesome

yeah lots of good deals do not miss that

event thoven conference.com and you can

see on that page that Jeff is our top

sponsor we only got a couple top sponsor

spots Jeff grabbed one of them and we

certainly appreciate you making this

event possible and and you're behind I

don't know if I filled you in or not

Jeff but we've been able to offer for a

whole lot of people a bunch of

scholarships were created because of the

money that you guys helped provide for

the event where they can attend at no

charge so you're helping a lot of people

attend the event at no charge and a lot

of gratitude from them and from me for

making that possible this year so thanks

buddy thank you we really appreciate all

that you guys are doing so we're happy

to to be able to support it so thank you

outstanding well we'll do this again

next week what do you say sounds good I

man talk to you have more to share then

good thing see you all

right